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Need help from Canadian cold weather gardeners!

B

Blackcat

I need some help from other cold weather growers !
I live in Northern BC Canada in hardiness zone 2-3.
Its a short cold growing season with lots of bright sunlight.
I know that tomatoes, bell peppers and other can be grown here but I have no idea how to do it.
There doesn't seem to be much info available for growing in this climate.
I figure it gets above 55F 15C around june.
my guess most vegetable plants like peppers and tomatoes have to be started early indoors or a greenhouse. Im not sure how early to start veggies and how long they should grow indoors before planting outside. basically i'm not sure about the timing in general for this area. Please help !
 
Hi Kris
The first thing you need to do is to figure out what you're going to plant and how much lead time you need before your first frost-free date. Johnny's Selected Seeds of Maine has a nifty planting calculator on their website here... http://www.johnnysee...eedStart.aspx Just delete the date on top and add your first frost-free date and the app will calculate when you need to start your seeds and when you can transplant outside after hardening off. Superhot chiles deviate somewhat from that though... The general rule is Plant in January to get pods in July. It's true that your growing season is short, but being as close to the Arctic circle as you are, you'll have much longer hours of sunlight to compensate. Check out this Wiki article about the Matanuska-Susitna Valley in Alaska... http://en.wikipedia....-Susitna_Valley If they can do it, I'm sure you can as well. Good luck with your growing season. Post lots of pics!
 
That is awesome ! exactly what I was looking for thanks!
Yes that is true in the summer here we have daylight almost 20 hours out of the day.
 
There are things you can do to extend your season even further without breaking the bank... I laid down black plastic thermal mulch on top of my prepared beds, planted in holes cut or punched in the black plastic, and erected a low hoophouse over them with a framework of half inch by 10 foot PVC pipe and 4 mil sheet poly. http://thehotpepper...._80#entry604650
Our first frost-free date here is the middle of May, but using this system, I planted out on April 16th with good results.
You could leave the framework up after removing the poly sheeting when you no longer need it, and when frost threatens around September, put it back on again. Cheers!
 
the disadvantage you have is the cool night time summer temps, the advantage you have is the summer sun duration. though i am a bit further south than you, the sun here rises at 4:30am and sets at 10:30pm starting in may. when the sun goes down for those few hours it gets nippy. i would bet you get more sunlight hours just based on the earth's egg shape curve.

there are cool weather vegetables cabbage, carrots, beets, peas, kolhrab are just a few, you might try those mini corns.

i will be starting my tomatoes in a few weeks, indoors with the hope of planting them outdoors in by mid june. peppers for me never get ground planted and are always containered.

we have a few members from northern bc, prince george, 100 mile house(well that is more central), don't recall anyone from terrace or fort nelson but there have been a few alaska members. perhaps with the new kitimat expansion we will see more members form that area. i know my wife has been made offers to relocate there for a 4 year work term - i could fish all day long, assuming i could dodge the cougars and grizzlies. or perhaps take up wild mushroom farming - who knew that was a big thing in that region.

good luck on your gardening.
 
I use west coast seeds based out of delta they have a sowing chart as well, its probably closer to your schedule. Cold frames are an excellent way to prolong your season and boost the heat in the more moderate months.
 
Seed packets will often list when to start indoors, when to plant out, and when you can expect to harvest.
159917b_3.jpg


On the other hand, some will list to start 6-8 weeks before your last frost date.
http://www.mckenzieseeds.com/product_detail.aspx?productID=101550

I liked following those guidelines as a newbie with no experience the first time I tried gardening.



I'm on the east coast in Canada, and had my hand at a first grow season last year (or the year before perhaps). For example, our last frost date is listed as May 24 in my area, but I erred on the conservative side and waited till mid June to plant out since the temperature still dropped around freezing on most nights. Our first frost date is listed as September 24, but I'm sure there were nights before that where it was freezing at night. So I have a very short growing season. I bought packets of seeds mostly only if they listed when to start, and when to plant out because I had no experience. I had an ok production of peppers, but felt that some of them could have benefited with a longer growing season.

Since our growing season is so short, I decided to start much earlier than the 6-8 weeks this year. I started indoors mid January, so 12-14 weeks earlier instead of 6-8. Mind you, these are for peppers.

I also planted some Swiss chard, lettuce, and cucumbers as directed in the packets (directly in the ground) and these produced very nicely as well. Tomatoes I had bought from a nursery, again because of the very short growing season we have.


Anyway, hope this gives you the confidence to start up. Cheers from a fellow Canadian and best of luck.
 
This is looking promising :D I ordered a number of seeds from Pepper Joe that arrived recently. Various hot peppers bell peppers and tomatoes. One I have been wanting to try for a long time is the chocolate bell. Now I have some seeds for this thanks to Joe.
I will start early indoors and then move plants to hoop houses with dark ground cover (that's a great idea!)
Im about 4-5 hours North of Prince George myself but the climate here I find is vastly different in such a short distance. Colder, drier, different light. I'm from Vancouver so i'm used to that growing climate. This harsher Northern climate takes some getting used too! Then I realized... Ill be gone for most of July-August motorcycle trip across to the East coast. Now I have to figure out how to do my growing around that schedule! Anybody want to garden sit lol ? :P
 
I have plenty of seeds to sell if your looking for some nasty peppers!

trying to have more income just to live from my passions apples and Peppers!
so until my orchard and small (very small) pepper sideline rocks, still working my day job and running the orchard at night and during my vacation!
 
i would back hammerfall, as a member he has really proven himself as someone who is committed to this site and delivering on a quality product. he has tried to help many members with his knowledge, stick with him and he will deliver.
 
Glad to see other Canadians around. I lurk the forums quite a lot and really envy those with such a nice long growing season.

Hammerfall, maybe I'll look you up next year for some seeds. I bought seeds from a local-ish nursery this year: Bhut Jolokias and Habaneros. Their selection of hot peppers was limited. I still had some Cayenne and Jalapeno seeds from last year.
 
Last year i tried a "Ghost Chili/bhut jolokia" plant from a farmer who sold that plant in the market in montreal...

what grew out of the "Bhut jolokia" plant was something like fresno type peppers and not too much heat...
was pissed to help the guy and didnt had what i was looking for... not even close to the heat!

anyway Dont worry Julie you will see plenty of picture of peppers in my Glog or on facebook (if your there... you can add me David Croteau )

Im trying to live from and with passion : natures stuff !!!
 
Hey'yahs...
If you are interested, there is a Canadian only Seed Train (of which I am part of).
Wonderful varieties and great people contributing to the train.

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/33159-canadian-seed-train-project-round-2-still-room-for-more-members/

Check it out!

Mark
 
Hammerfall:
I am always so doubtful of buying seeds. I'm a pessimistic type person so assume they won't be anything like the variety they are labelled as (similar to your experience).

allaKAZAM:
Thank you for pointing out the train. Sadly I have nothing interesting to offer (newbie grower), so can't contribute to the train. With that being said, I have bookmarked the thread for next year perhaps. I had a few good tasting peppers last summer from local nurseries, so I will visit again this year and see what I can save for round 3 or 4 perhaps. I went through the thread and it looks like something very amazing to be part of, but my seeds pale in comparison to what appears to be in the train :/
 
It looks like for my zone end of april middle may is the time to start most things indoors. Peppers are listed as starting 6-8 weeks indoors before first frost but i'm thinking thats bell peppers... Should I also start my hots 12-14 weeks early indoors?
I have two ghost habs in bloom can they also go out into the garden?
Hammerfall that offer sounds good! I will have to wait till next year myself as well I just used up what I set aside for this years seeds.
I'm also paranoid of getting the wrong seeds... They can be pricey and the time involved to grow them out here and then find out they aren't what they are supposed to be is no good. I also like the idea of this seed train thats awesome ! Once I have some seeds to contribute ill gladly get on this train!
 
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